Lunch Lady is back, with Lunch Lady and the Video Game Villain, #9, by Jarrett J. Krosoczka. Someone is stealing all the high tech gadgets at Thompson Brook School. Gone are Lunch Lady’s Spork Phone, a kid’s pocket poker game, electric guitars, projectors, laptops and Hector’s X-Station mobile—and he’d been winning the latest game of Mega Mash Brothers! In this newest Lunch Lady, Hector is running for new student council president. What better platform than to promise a safe school—safe from thieves!

Lunch Lady starts investigating. She places a smartphone by the water cooler. As soon as the thief picks it up, it will snap a photo and send it to Lunch Lady’s laptop. As Lunch Lady tracks down the thief, Hector is giving his speech in front of the school. There’s not as many nifty cooking utensils in this one, but it’s still full of action and mystery. My ten-year-old son’s complaint? “It wasn’t long enough. I wish there were about 100 more pages.”

Lunch Lady and the Video Game Villain sets up several unresolved mysteries, such as a Cyborg who is working at A1 copy and a mean superintendent, who comes in and closes down the cafeteria, assuring readers that there will soon be #10.

Nina Schulyer‘s first novel, The Painting, was nominated for the Northern California Book Award and was named a ‘Best Book’ by the San Francisco Chronicle. Her new novel, The Translator, published by Pegasus Books, released in July, 2013. She is the fiction editor for www.ablemuse.com and teaches creative writing at the University of San Francisco. For more information, visit: www.ninaschuyler.com.

Nina Schulyer’s new novel, The Translator,has received starred reviews from Booklist and Shelf Awareness. Her first novel, The Painting, was nominated for the Northern California Book Award and was named a ‘Best Book’ by the San Francisco Chronicle. She teaches creative writing at the University of San Francisco. For more information, visit her at www.ninaschuyler.com.

If you love books as much as we do, we know you’ll love our selection of titles that highlights some of the best new kids books; including a never-before-seen picture book by Dr. Seuss and some highly anticipated sequels!

Social Graces

Participating in the rich tradition of parables that illustrate moral and religious teachings through animal tales, Life in the Meadow with Madie: Mr. Earl’s Missing Eyeglasses presents the story of a community coming together to help out someone in need.

This is a book young people will probably want to read more than once, both for the themes in the story and for the author’s storytelling. It will appeal to middle grade readers who like sports – especially basketball – and coming of age stories.

The loveable crew of the Flying Dragon is back! In A Flag for the Flying Dragon: A Captain No Beard Story, Captain No Beard and his friends work together to resolve conflicts as they look for the perfect job for their youngest crewmember, Zachary.